Sunday, January 1, 2012

Hello 2012!!!

Wow, I can't believe another year has come and gone. How is it possible that every year goes by faster than the last? Well, I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for us as a family in 2012, especially as I look back at 2011 and see all the ways the Lord worked in our lives to reveal Himself more vividly to us. So it is with great anticipation that I face this year knowing that whatever it may hold, I can be assured that the Lord will be ever present, ever faithful, and ever loving as He always is and always will be.

Here are some pics that captured some of our last days in 2011:

The Famous Sylvester Christmas Tree -

Full of ornaments marking special moments in our lives throughout the years. I don't know how she does it but Mama Sylvester always finds the most fitting ornaments for each and everyone of us year after year.

Jet getting a guitar lesson from Uncle Markie

So pretty

My in-laws recently renovated their kitchen - very nice!

Wow - I get to be married to this hot stud!

Sweet Roxy Girl with G-Ma

McDLT!

Loves horsing around with his uncles

The best father-in-law ever!

Lot of December birthdays: we did a fun little birthday celebration for Mom, Dad, and Daniel. Jet helped to blow out candles and added a little bit of his special sauce for free:)

I surprised Matt with a little getaway to the Niagara area. This region is becoming fast known as a major leader in the wine industry - I have never seen such a concentrated number of wineries in one place!

We stopped for lunch at Peninsula Ridge Winery where we had such a delicious lunch. As a starter we had this spinach gnocchi - bites of heavenly fluffy goodness!

Then we split this chipotle roast beef sandwich - so good!

Then we went on a little tour of some of the wineries in the area. One thing is for sure: every winery we went to had the most beautiful interior design, lots of reclaimed wood and stone - loved everything we saw.

Henry of Pelham Winery

Creekside Winery

Upper Cheese of Canada - yum!

Vineland Estates Winery - just gorgeous

The inside - see what I mean?!

So we had Jet open his presents from us on Christmas Eve. It was fun watching him this year since he definitely was very into it where last year, not so much. He loves construction machines and calls them "monsters" so we went with that theme.

The face says it all.

This is by far his most favorite toy right now.

Goodies at the annual Sylvester-Hales Christmas Eve party. The little Monkey kept sneaking stuff off the table. But hey, can you blame him?

Christmas Jet

Christmas Roxy

*sigh* I wish I had more pictures with my kids. Especially with this one, I'm lucky to have him sit still for more than 5 seconds with me.

PoPo with Roxy Girl

Roxy with Uncle D

By far the best gift I received this year

Love the finger over the nose

The Homies on Christmas Day

More gifts!

It snowed a couple days after Christmas. It was so beautiful I just had to take Jet out since he hasn't really been in it. He loved it so much that he threw a fit when I finally brought him back inside. I showed him how to catch snowflakes on his tongue - this kid kills me!

Kung Fu Roxy

My mom is in town and it was great having her here celebrating Christmas with us. She has been such a blessing to us and we are so thankful for her! Anyway, she brought me a fryer, which is good and bad news for the obvious reasons but for New Year's Eve we made homemade Chinese food and I busted out the fryer and made sweet and sour chicken. It turned out excellent and I highly recommend this recipe for it: